Daily Quiz 19 October 2024

Answer: C

Explanation:

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI), a tool used by international humanitarian agencies to measure and track hunger levels with GHI scores. It is published this week by Irish humanitarian organisation, Concern Worldwide and German aid agency Welthungerhilfe.
• Each country’s GHI score is calculated based on a formula that combines four indicators that together capture the multidimensional nature of hunger:
  • Point 1 is correct: Undernourishment: the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient
  • Point 3 is correct: Child wasting: the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition
  • Point 4 is correct: Child mortality: the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, reflecting in part the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments
  • Child stunting: the share of children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition

Point 2 is not correct: Average weight at adolescence is not an indicator in the GHI.

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is not correct: Shale Gas refers to natural gas that is trapped within shale formations. Shales are fine-grained sedimentary rocks that can be rich sources of petroleum and natural gas. Shale gas is trapped within the pores of this sedimentary rock. Typically, shale gas consists of 70 to 90 percent methane. Only shale formations with certain characteristics will produce gas and oil.
• Statement 2 is correct: Shale gas is a form of unconventional hydrocarbons because the rock it is extracted from acts as the source, reservoir and cap rock. The gas is produced, stored and sealed within impermeable shale and can be released only after the shale is drilled and artificially fractured during an extraction process.
• Statement 3 is correct: Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing are techniques used to extract shale gas from dense rock formations:
  • Horizontal drilling: A technique that allows drillers to drill and set pipes horizontally through rock formations. This technique was originally used in the 20th century for oil exploration in hard-to-produce formations like shale.
  • Hydraulic fracturing: Also known as fracking, this technique involves pumping a high-pressure fluid into a wellbore to create fractures in the rock. The fluid contains sand, water, and chemicals, and the fractures allow the trapped gas to flow into collection wells

Statement 4 is correct: India has several Shale formations which seem to hold Shale Gas and oil. The Shale Gas formations are spread over several sedimentary basins such as Cambay, Gondwana, Krishna-Godavari and Cauvery on-land.

Answer: C

Explanation:

• Point 1 is correct: The extent of vegetation in the Antarctic Peninsula has increased 14 times in 35 years. Vegetation, mostly mosses and lichen, covered less than 1 sq km of the roughly 5,00,000-sq-km peninsula in 1986, but had spread to almost 12 sq km by 2021. The rate of greening has increased by more than 30% between 2016 and 2021.
• Point 2 is correct: Soil in Antarctica is mostly poor or nonexistent, but this increase in plant life will add organic matter and facilitate soil formation. Mosses can colonise bare rock and create the foundation of soils that could in milder conditions make the continent more favourable for the growth of other invasive species that could threaten native flora and fauna.
• Point 3 is not correct: As global warming leads to the melting of sea ice and a decrease in average seasonal snowfall, the region’s albedo drops. A lower albedo means more solar energy is absorbed, leading to warmer climates and perpetuating the cycle of ice melt and albedo reduction.

Point 4 is correct: Rising temperatures in Antarctica have also resulted in a rapid decrease in the extent of sea ice, the 2024 extent was the second smallest of the satellite record, only slightly more than the record low set in 2023. Warmer open seas may be leading to wetter conditions that favour plant growth.

Answer: A

Explanation:

• Statement 1 is not correct and statement 2 is correct: Under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) Amendment Act, 2019, The Central Government may designate an organisation as a terrorist organisation if it: commits or participates in acts of terrorism, prepares for terrorism, promotes terrorism, or is otherwise involved in terrorism. It additionally empowers the Central Government to designate individuals as terrorists on the same grounds. 

Statement 3 is not correct: The Central Government may establish a tribunal to be known as the “Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal” consisting of one person, to be appointed by the Central Government: Provided that no person shall be so appointed unless he is a Judge of a High Court. When any association has been declared unlawful , the Central Government shall, within thirty days from the date of the publication of the notification, refer the notification to the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Tribunal for the purpose of adjudicating whether or not there is sufficient cause for declaring the association unlawful.

Answer: D

Explanation:

• OpenSAFELYis a secure, transparent, open-source software platform for analysis of electronic health records data. All platform activity is publicly logged. All code for data management and analysis is shared, under open licenses and by default, for scientific review and efficient re-use.
• It can be deployed to create a Trusted Research Environment (TRE) alongside appropriate database, compute, governance and administrative elements; or it can be deployed as a privacy-enhancing layer on any existing secure database or TRE.

OpenSAFELY software is currently deployed within the secure data centres of the two largest electronic health record providers in the NHS, to support urgent research into the Covid-19 emergency: thereby creating OpenSAFELY-TPP and OpenSAFELY-EMIS.